As broadcast television becomes increasingly sophisticated by augmenting content based on supplemental data sources and camera tracking technology, there is a general desire to open up the possibilities for visual enhancements. Virtual set and movie special effects technology is leading to advanced camera tracking techniques that facilitate the integration of synthetic environments into live video by adapting the synthetic content to camera data (e.g. position, orientation, field of view). Thus the instrumentation of cameras for precise tracking is advancing.
Existing technologies such as the new Zcam camera (Zcam is a trademark of 3DV Systems, Ltd.) are beginning to illustrate how depth information can become a first class data source for fusing synthetic content with video. Unfortunately Zcam and other methods of depth extraction (such as image disparity) are currently constrained to a limited volume for acquisition of depth information. The typical acquisition range of such technologies varies from a few square meters up to a volume commensurate to that of an indoor studio. The quality of depth reconstruction provided by such systems diminishes as it scales up. Thus these solutions do not scale up to levels where they can be applied to sports venues such as stadiums and racetracks.